Steve Fifita is the Executive Director at City Digital, a collaboration with UI LABS, which leverages Chicago as a test bed for piloting Smart City solutions in four critical impact areas: Energy Management, Physical Infrastructure, Transportation, and Water and Sanitation. As Executive Director, he leads the National Innovation Accelerator focused on joint-development, deployment, and commercialization of technology between corporates, startups, and government. Steve also serves as Managing Director, Technology & Incubation, for UI LABS.

Steve has had more than 20 years of experience in technology innovation, global strategy, and commercial execution. Prior to UI LABS, he was the Managing Member at ADG Holding, where he advised companies on corporate development, strategy, and innovation across a number of different industries, including IoT/analytics, consumer electronics, health, finance, banking, and energy.

Prior to this experience, Steve was the Head of Corporate Development at Best Buy Inc., where he led mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, and was a key member of the corporate strategy group for the $60 billion consumer electronics company. His efforts were focused on enterprise growth initiatives in the areas of eCommerce, Digital Media, Connected Home/Cars, Wearable Tech, Managed Services, and Mobility.

Steve has also held positions at Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard, leading corporate strategy, new technology development, incubation, and investment specifically in emerging technology markets. He is a frequent speaker and advisor on topics of infrastructure innovation and entrepreneurship clusters for both the public and private sectors, and has also served as the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Board for the Stanford Project on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) and the Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship (STAJE).

UI LABS solves large-scale challenges by bringing University + Industry together with startups and government to accelerate the deployment of emerging technologies through collaboration. UI LABS is developing a portfolio of applied research and commercialization Labs that lead to a return on investment for its partners, improve local, regional and national competitiveness, and transform entire industries. Across its current Labs, UI LABS has over 300 members from industry, academic and research institutions, states and cities, and community organizations.

In February 2014, UI LABS announced the formation of its first Lab, the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII), through collaboration with the Department of Defense and a host of other partners, to transform American manufacturing through digitization of the supply chain. Learn more at www.dmdii.org.

UI LABS’ second Lab, City Digital, launched in 2015 to digitize the built environment to transform how citizens live, work, and play in cities today and tomorrow. Learn more at www.citydigital.org.